Los Angeles Lakers: Kyle Kuzma will win the Sixth Man of the Year
By Jason Reed
Even with all of the new additions to the Los Angeles Lakers, Kyle Kuzma is still one of the most talented on the roster and will be the Sixth Man of the Year.
Any team that naturally adds LeBron James is going to get better. That is obvious. However, the Los Angeles Lakers will improve next season for reasons beyond LeBron James.
The Los Angeles Lakers also added veteran pieces around James that gave the Lakers one of the deepest rosters in basketball. That still does not have as big of an impact on why the team is going to improve, though.
The Lakers are going to improve drastically with LeBron not just because of LeBron but because of the young pieces that he is joining in LA. Last season was just a prelude, this season is going to be fun to watch.
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Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and Kyle Kuzma are the young core four that will play alongside LeBron as well as carry his legacy on in LA after he leaves. The four players all have promising resumes despite their young age and will only continue to grow in the league.
However, not all of the four are starting. Ball, Hart and Ingram are most likely to get the starting job. Kuzma, despite being the second-best behind Ingram, will likely start games on the bench.
This is because of LeBron, who is probably going to play power forward with Ingram at small forward. However, Kuzma should get plenty of time off the bench (30+ minutes) as well as be on the court during crunch time.
He is going to be the perfect sixth man for the Los Angeles Lakers, splitting time between both forward positions. Not only is he going to be great for the Lakers, he is going to be the best sixth man in the league.
Kuzma is competing with the likes of Eric Gordon and Lou Williams for the Sixth Man of the Year award and has a distinct edge over both men. While both are very talented and are great players, neither are going to have the same impact on their respective teams as Kuzma does on the Lakers.
Gordon is going to be a nice bench piece for the Rockets but will be nothing more than that. When it comes down to crunch time, Chris Paul and James Harden are the players to look for, not Gordon.
Williams will have a bigger role on the Clippers but it is going to be hard to win the reward on a team that may be irrelevant. Not only that, it would not be surprising to see Williams in the starting lineup with rookie Jerome Robinson coming off the bench, taking away the chance to win the award.
Kuzma, on the other hand, is going to be the Lakers’ number one option off the bench and is probably going to be the team’s third-best scorer behind James and Ingram.
With LeBron, it is not crazy to think that Ingram could score 20 or more per game off the bench. LeBron has always played well with stretch fours that can know down shots. Kuzma can not only knock down shots but create his own shots on the offensive end.
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Being the third-best player on what should be the fourth or fifth-best team in the league is going to be hard to ignore. Thus, once NBA Award seasons rolls around, it is going to painstakingly obviously that Kyle Kuzma is the best option for Sixth Man of the Year.